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1590b: Aflatoxin Challenge: Round 11
Status: Closed
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Summary
Name: |
1590b: Aflatoxin Challenge: Round 11 |
Status: |
Closed |
Created: |
10/21/2018 |
Points: |
0 |
Expired: |
11/04/2018 - 23:00 |
Difficulty: |
Intermediate |
Description: |
Note: This puzzle was closed early, due to some continuing scoring issues, and reposted as Puzzle 1590c.
Note: This puzzle replaces the original Puzzle 1590, which had an error in the puzzle setup. Players may not load in solutions from the original Puzzle 1590.
Redesign the active site to bind aflatoxin! This is Round 11 of the Aflatoxin Challenge. Since the last round, the Siegel Lab has introduced a few mutations in the active site, which might allow for some new redesign. This time, we're asking players to focus on just one loop of the starting structure, which clashes with the aflatoxin ligand in the binding pocket. Players may insert up to 20 extra residues into the designable loop, at a cost of 20 points per residue. Parts of the scaffold protein have been trimmed to reduce the size of the puzzle, and we've upweighted ligand interactions by a factor of five. We'd like to see if Foldit players can design proteins that make more interactions with the ligand! See the blog for more details.
Aflatoxins are a class of poisonous compounds that contaminate a significant portion of the global food supply. In this puzzle, players are challenged to redesign an enzyme that could break down aflatoxin molecules. The majority of the protein is frozen, with the aflatoxin ligand fixed in a binding pocket. Surrounding the binding pocket are a number of loops that might be redesigned without affecting the folding stability of the protein. In these loops, players may manipulate the protein backbone and mutate the residue sidechains. Redesign the loops of this protein to better bind the aflatoxin ligand!
This is the eleventh puzzle of our Aflatoxin Challenge, sponsored by Mars Inc. and Thermo Fisher Scientific. Promising designs will be tested by the Siegel Lab at UC Davis. By participating in the challenge/game, the players agree that all player designs will be available permanently in the public domain, and the players will not seek intellectual property protection over the designs created as part of the challenge/game. |
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Comments
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I was watching the recipe Random Idealize 2.1.2 do its work on my design, and noticed that the score shown on the leaderboard jumped to 11188, while the recipe thought my score was 10965. The recipe continued to show scores less than 11000 for a bit after that, so it wasn't just that the recipe hadn't shown the leap.